The present invention relates to apparatus and procedures for forming a novelty (such as for example, an ice cream novelty with high solids inclusions) and in particular, but not necessarily solely, an apparatus and procedures (and the products of any such procedures) for forming an extruded frozen novelty with high inclusions from a mouldable material.
As referred to in xe2x80x9cIce Creamxe2x80x9d (Fourth Edition and subsequent editions prior to the date of this application) W S Arbuckle (The AVI Publishing Company, Inc., Westport, Conn., USA) frozen novelties, typified by those made of ice cream and/or water ices, are frequently extruded and cut across the axis of the extrusion into individual pieces. Such novelties are referred to as being extruded novelties.
The full content of all such prior art editions of Arbuckle are hereby incorporated by way of reference in their entirety.
As used herein xe2x80x9can extruded frozen novelty with high inclusions from a mouldable materialxe2x80x9d preferably includes an extruded or co-extruded edible material to be maintained at below 0xc2x0 C. (eg; ice cream and/or water ice or mixtures thereof) and the high inclusions may be any solid or solids [preferably edible] (eg; fruit pieces, confectionery items, etc.). By high inclusions are preferably sufficient such inclusions to preclude or discourage a simple wire or blade cutting transversely of the extrusion or co-extrusion axis of the mouldable material owing to the potential for such a wire or blade to encounter a solid region and thus provide other than a clean separation of a discrete quantum of the high inclusion material from the extrusion mass thereof.
As used herein the term xe2x80x9cnozzle meansxe2x80x9d can be both singular and plural to the extent required should there be a wish to extrude more than one material into each cavity or to dedicate different nozzles to specifically indexed cavities, ie; every alternate cavity.
As used herein xe2x80x9ccavityxe2x80x9d insofar as the carousel is concerned preferably means no more than an opening to define a periphery, and, as used herein xe2x80x9crecessxe2x80x9d means both said opening and a base thereof or top thereof depending on whether or not the nozzle feeds from above (preferred) or below.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide apparatus, procedures and products which provide at least an alternative to existing apparatus, procedures and products.
Accordingly in a first aspect the present invention consists in apparatus for forming a novelty from a mouldable material, which apparatus comprises or includes
a carousel (as hereinafter defined) having a plurality of open mould cavities formed therein (whether to the same shape or not), said carousel being rotatable so as to index each cavity to xe2x80x9cstationsxe2x80x9d as herein defined,
means providing a filling xe2x80x9cstationxe2x80x9d which includes or comprises
a nozzle, chute or other means (hereafter xe2x80x9cnozzle meansxe2x80x9d) for injecting or extruding the material into a mould cavity of the carousel when appropriately indexed therewith
means to xe2x80x9cclosexe2x80x9d the indexed mould cavity so as to define a xe2x80x9crecessxe2x80x9d into which said mouldable material can fill,
said nozzle (or means in fixed relation thereto) being capable of co-acting with said carousel as there is relative movement to act as xe2x80x9cshearing meansxe2x80x9d which has the effect upon rotation of the carousel of shearing the quantity of material within the recess from that material still within said nozzle means, and
means providing a cavity emptying xe2x80x9cstationxe2x80x9d comprising or including
means which after such xe2x80x9cshearingxe2x80x9d in use will cause the movement of such material contained within an appropriately indexed cavity of the carousel out of the cavity onto a support surface whilst retaining, at least in part, some of the shape of the cavity in the material.
Reference to xe2x80x9ccarouselxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cstation(s)xe2x80x9d herein does not preclude a stationary xe2x80x9ccarouselxe2x80x9d having a carousel-like relativity to movable stations, i.e., it is the relativity of the mould cavities to the nozzle means, shearing means and the emptying means that is important.
Preferably the shearing means has the effect of smoothing (at least to some extent) the top of a dispensed amount of material and/or the bottom of the next to be dispensed amount of materials from the nozzle means.
Preferably the apparatus is of a kind that can operate a system of operations substantially as hereinafter described with reference to any one or more of the accompanying drawings.
In yet a further aspect, the present invention consists in apparatus capable of performing a method substantially as herein described by reference to FIGS. 5A through 5H.
In still a further aspect the present invention consists in a method of forming a novelty from a mouldable material (for example, high solids content ice cream, ie; the solids being discrete larger particles), which method comprises extruding the material (e.g. from nozzle means) into a cavity (at least) temporarily provided with a bottom, thereafter causing relative movement between means forming at least part of said cavity and the extrusion nozzle means or the equivalent so as to shear the cavity contained quantity of material from any such material remaining in said extrusion nozzle means or the equivalent and thereafter (preferably after the provision of a stick into the material) discharging the moulded quantity of material from the cavity no longer having a bottom (e.g. by appropriate means) on to a support surface.
Reference herein to extrusion, to extrusion nozzle means, etc. is without a mandatory requirement of the extruded cross-section of the mouldable material conforming to the cross-sectional shape of the cavity.
Preferably said cavity is at least in part provided as part of the carousel.
Preferably said method is performed using apparatus as hereinbefore defined and/or substantially as hereinafter described in more detail.
As referred to herein the materials involved include any suitable novelty material that preferably requires freezing to be mouldable and/or shape retaining but which preferably includes discrete items therein (eg; fruit chunks, confectionary chunks, etc.) Which would render accurate cutting thereof difficult by procedures other than those of the present invention. The present invention however does not preclude the use of such apparatus in such a method with mouldable material not including such components.
In still a further aspect the present invention consists in a novelty item (preferably sticked) resulting from use of apparatus in accordance with the present invention, the use of a method of the present invention or substantially hereinafter described when manufactured by a method substantially as hereinafter described with or without reference to any one or more of the accompanying drawings.
As used herein reference to relative movement or movement of the carousel includes within its ambit intermittent or continuous movement. It is envisioned that the apparatus will be operated at high speed and therefore with conventional equipment in conjunction with the carousel and related apparatus the present invention includes incremental movement such that there is stationery indexing of cavities serially etc. at the xe2x80x9cstationsxe2x80x9d is preferred as it offers the least complicated engineering solution.